Customer Reviews

Beast-The Collected Works of John Banovich: Beast

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Incredible artwork. The most detailed and realistic wildlife art I have ever seen. Beautiful natural settings, exquisite animal likeness... and all on canvas. Absolutely sensational, absolutely the best!

PLUS an interesting look into John Banovich's life... the athlete, the global conservationist, the artist's beginning and his family. I still cannot quite get my mind around the idea of John as a "body builder"... you have to see the picture. Great stuff!

Even if I cannot afford a canvas rendition, I can still enjoy Banovich's awesome art through BEAST.

I took a workshop from John a few years ago. He is somebody I respect as a artist - and a person. I have been in Africa a couple of times and his art work comes to life. I am so glad to buy his book - it doesn't disappoint!

Wow! And Double Wow!! Having never sampled the incredibly lifelike and wonderfully atmospheric wildlife paintings done by this artist, I was blown away by BEAST, THE COLLECTED WORKS ON JOHN BANOVICH! This man's work has to be seen to be believed. Whether you're a nature lover or a lover of fine art, you owe it to yourself to hunt up a copy of BEAST.

Self-published by the artist, BEAST features 112 Banovich paintings, 43 sketches showing his artwork in progress and 72 photographs; some 264 pages of world-class artwork in all. Banovich works in a variety of formats, large canvases that can range up to 48x115" and smaller artworks 10x15", 12x17", etc. which he terms "Zawadis," which is Swahili for "precious gifts." The paintings and accompanying commentary are divided into chapters that detail Banovich's life and career chronologically, i.e. '1965-89: The Early Years,' '1990-95: The Dark Continent,' '2000: The Road Less Travelled,' '2001: Searching for Shere Khan' and so on.

Though I detect a partiality for lions and tigers, Banovich's artworks feature hyenas, elephants, gazelles, whitetail deer, leopards, polar bears, grizzlies, flamingos, rhinos, hippos, antelope, wolves, zebras, etc. What is so striking is not only his ability to capture the animals so realistically - for a moment, I thought 'White Wallow' was a photograph(!) - but his facility to capture the essence of each subject. For instance, the Cape Buffalo in 'Slightly Shady' glares at the viewer with an unmistakeable "Don't mess with me" menace. Another painting, 'Spring Loaded,' perfectly captures a stalking lion's total focus and rigid muscular control. His settings and backgrounds are equally well-done. And it struck me that, although the artworks depicted "wildlife in the raw," most of them conveyed a feeling of tranquility.

Banovich's narrative was wonderfully informative. His devotion to and love of nature is everywhere evident in his words. It's also refreshing that a sly sense of humor is evident. His powerful depiction of two male hippos bellowing and postering is entitled '104th Congress,' a delicious dig at politicians.

If possible, I'd give BEAST six stars. To begin with, Banovich's superb, compelling and evocative artwork is wonderfully presented in the book. Then too, the accompanying narrative allows the reader a rare, up-close-and-personal look of a great talent - and dedicated conservationist - at work. BEAST sells for $69.95; it's worth every penny! Highly recommended.

This book is absolutely gorgeous! Of course John's work is beautiful, but the book itself is also high-quality. I've seen other art books that can really insult the artist with images printed on flimsy paper and poor-quality inks. Not so with this book. A large heavy book with rich inks printed on thick glossy pages, it really let you appreciate all the colors and fine detail of John's fantastic works. A must-have for anyone interested in wildlife art!
I also enjoyed reading the story of John's journey to becoming an artist. If you've ever struggled to make your dreams come true you will both laugh and cry as you relate to his struggles from starving student to his life as one of the most successful wildlife artists. (Well, I can't relate to the "most successful wildlife artist" part yet, but I can certainly relate to the starving student part!) His story is an inspiration to all artists.

If you can GET JOHN BANOVICH'S book too, this one with the rinocerous on the cover is a MUST SEE AND IS A HUGE HUGE BOOK AND TOOK UP PART OF MY DOORWAY! If you are a Robert Bateman, Carl Brenders, and Seery-Lester fan GET THIS because this man can keep up with the great nature artists today. This book is totally beautiful and well done. If I would have got this at Christmas I would have unwrapped it like some special item in total exotic euphoric pleasure and that is what it takes for a book to make you feel special. Like a gift that you bought that was REALLY NICE and you want to keep nice and cherish, when I was done looking (and I did it in stages to savor it because it blew me away) I did not put it back on the shelf with the others, I put it in the special art book trunk to keep it protected. Oh so nice, so well done, detailed, clear, colorful, large and easy to see, great subjects on the animals with alot of life!

This is a very enjoyable book with beautiful paintings and reminiscences from John Banovich and was well worth the wait from when I first saw it advertised on his website early in the year. I have all Robert Bateman's books and this one is as good or better than those. Now if only Daniel Smith would come out with a book!